1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a surveillance camera that has a function of performing a masking process with respect to a specific area in a shot image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A camera that is used for a monitoring application may continuously take images around a public place or a specific building and also the image taken by the camera may include a specific object that should not be displayed in view of a privacy or an information management in many cases.
Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-069494 discloses a surveillance camera capable of performing a masking process for an area where a specific object has been taken in a shot image. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-040162 discloses a television camera capable of specifying a mask area for which the masking process should be performed by a touch panel method.
However, when the surveillance camera has an autofocus (AF) function or an automatic color adjustment (AWB) function, there may be a case where an evaluation area in which an evaluation value used for the AF or the AWB in the shot image is obtained is overlapped with a mask area. In this case, the AF is performed for an object for which the masking has been performed or the AWB is performed based on the area for which the masking has been performed, and an output image in which an area other than the mask area to be displayed is blurred or a color is unnatural is obtained.